Gerard Boate's Natural History of Ireland

Author:

Jordan, Thomas E., editor

Year:

2006

Pages:

132

ISBN:

0-7734-5919-7978-0-7734-5919-9

Price:

139.95

This is an original edition of Gerard Boate’s Natural History of Ireland. Dedicated to Oliver Cromwell, it was written after the 1641 uprising in Ireland in which investors were to be paid in Irish lands. Boate’s work contained detailed information about Ireland that he received from his older brother, Arnold, and English planters. It was hoped that the book would attract settlers to Ireland.

This work will appeal to scholars in Anglo-Irish Studies, Science, History, Philosophy, Geography, Natural History, and the 17th Century.

Reviews

“The 1640s in England were turbulent and saw the civil war between Parliament and Charles I. Before the country was shattered, however, there had emerged consensus that the 1641 uprising in Ireland by Sir Phelim O’Neill must lead to a final settlement of that country. To that end, people subscribed to a war-chest whose investors were to be paid in Irish lands. Money has few prejudices, and Dutch guilders were quite acceptable. Gerard Boate and his investment among the Adventurers were welcomed in London. Unlike his older brother Arnold, Gerard had not yet visited Ireland in 1645, but he agreed to compile into a single work accurate information about Ireland. Substantial materials came from Arnold Boate, Sir William Parsons, and from the English planters, some of whom had been in Ireland since the days of Elizabeth Tudor; some had fled in the disorders of 1641, and expected to recover their lands once more ...” – from the Introduction by Thomas E. Jordan